A Mommy Story

Ever since our house was broken into in July, I’ve been suspicious of nearly everyone in the area. They never caught anyone, and none of our stolen items were recovered. The police were pretty sure that the thief was probably a teen, since the items stolen (Playstation and games, laptop computers, video camera) were the type of items a teen would want to steal.

Now, every time I look out the window and see a teen walking down the street a little too slowly, or drive past a group of teens standing around on the corner, I immediately wonder what they’re up to. But it’s not just teens, either. If I see a scruffy-looking younger man, I get nervous also.

I hate that I’m now suspicious of neighbors, but there have been so many break-ins in our neighborhood lately that it’s hard to not look closely at everyone around you and see if someone looks shady.

For example, there’s a house across the street and slightly down from us. Many of the other neighbors suspect that the people in this house are up to no good. First, the man living there is an ex-con, who got out of prison right before he and the woman he lives with bought the house. Second, they have no teenagers, yet every now and then there are a group of rough-looking teens at their house. They are home all the time – one of the neighbors spoke with them, and it seems that the only income they have is from a paper route. A paper route? You can’t afford a house like that with only a paper route.

Also, there’s the issue that they have a video camera mounted on the roof of their garage, pointed towards the street and the houses across the street. Uh, what? Why do you need a video camera watching the street and the houses across the street?

Last weekend our next door neighbors had a break-in. They left for the day, they locked their door, but they didn’t use the deadbolt. In the afternoon, someone came up, got the front door open, and let their dogs out. We noticed the door open and the dogs out, so we tried to get their dogs back inside and shut the door. When they came home, they called the police, and even though nothing was taken, the police were certain that someone had gone inside. (They had nothing a teen might want, like game systems or laptops.) Our neighbors found that without the deadbolt, a simple credit card could easily be used to open the door. They’re now using the deadbolt lock all the time.

So, after all of this, I was a little startled when I came home with Cordy on Thursday afternoon and through the curtain, saw a teen boy walking along our back fence. Straight, black, greasy hair, loose white shirt, baggy jeans, maybe 15 or 16, and a facial expression that looked up to no good. I peeked out the curtain, while he walked very slowly along my fence, looking carefully at the backyards of our neighbors. When he reached the end of the fence, the neighbors dogs spotted him, and started barking, and he quickly turned around and started walking the other way along my back fence again.

We have a woods behind our house, so there’s no reason for someone to be walking around the back of our yard. I continued watching him, as he pulled out a cell phone and started to make a call. I opened my back door, staring hard at him to make him realize I was watching him. He gave me a slight glance from the corner of his eye, then closed his cell phone and walked to the side of my house.

I closed the door and walked into the kitchen to continue watching this suspicious kid, but he was gone. I ran to the front and stepped out onto my front porch to see where he went, but there was no sight of him. Where did he go? I paid a visit to my next door neighbor to let her know. At that point, the neighbor on the other side of my next door neighbor came over and said the kid was standing behind a shed in the backyard a few houses down. She had asked him what he was doing, and he said he was looking for his lost cat. However, she said she had seen him several days before also. We went back to look for him, but he was gone again.

At this point, another neighbor joins us, and says that she just saw a teen walking slowly around one of the cul-de-sacs. He was looking closely at each house, although now he was carrying books with him. (He had no books before. Also, this was all still before school let out.) She drove around the block a few times, but he had once again disappeared.

With all of this going on, what would you do at this point? I called the police. I’m tired of being scared in my own house, wondering when the next break-in will be, wondering if we’re going to lose more of our belongings again. I gave the police a description of the teen, and told them about his erratic behavior, and they said they would patrol the area more now, keeping his description in mind.

Yes, it’s possible this kid has nothing to do with our house being robbed. Truthfully, I have no idea who could be responsible, which is what makes it so frightening. But I don’t feel bad about calling the police on this teen. If the kid has nothing to hide, then he shouldn’t be worried. Of course, he also shouldn’t be walking through other people’s backyards, either.

At least one good thing has come of all of this. I’ve been able to meet more of our neighbors, all of them very worried about the current state of our street, and we’ve banded together to help look out for each other. We’re all keeping cameras near our back windows or doors to take a picture of anyone walking through our back yards. It’s not a Block Watch, but at least people are starting to take notice of what’s going on, and they’re deciding that they’re not going to stand for it.